Monday, August 6, 2007

It's baaaaaaaaaack!!!

Wow. Last night was so awesome. I've waited 6+ months for this... For what, you ask? For football to start again! Last night was the meaningless Hall of Fame preseason game between my beloved Steelers and the Saints. And even though I know this doesn't mean anything, it's always nice to start off the season with a win, starters clicking, and to just see the black and gold on the field. I have to say though... Nothing against Mike Tomlin, the new headcoach for the Steelers, but I miss Bill Cowher. It might take me a while to get used to the new headcoach... but then again, if they start winning, maybe it won't.

Don't worry. If you're thinking that I'm gonna recap a meaningless preseason game by talking about the long bomb Roethlisberger tossed to Cedric Wilson or the slant pass to Nate Washington or Najeh Davenport punching into the end zone for the opening score, I won't. :)

But, as fantasy football season is right around the corner, I'm going to go over how I became a Steelers fan. This weekend was the Hall of Fame induction... and I'm sorry to say, I only knew Thurman Thomas and Michael Irvin. The other three, I have no idea who they are. Hell. I don't know too many players before 1994. I'm not your typical Steelers fan that talks about the dynasty in the 70s... because I never saw them play back then. Lynn Swan? Terry Bradshaw? Franco Harris? See, back then, I never followed football. Hell, back then, I didn't know football existed.

I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. I moved here when I was 18. That was in 1994. I went to an international school in Japan so I grew up with English and Japanese all at the same time. So anyways, I chose a small private college in Richmond, VA (go Spiders) after graduating high school because that was the only school that no one from my high school went. You see, I thought, if I'm going to a different country, I don't want to go where everyone else was going. I wanted to meet new people, make new friends, etc. Being a big football fan, I now regret that I didn't go to a big football school but that is neither here nor there.

So, my first year there, in our dorm, there was this thing for fantasy football. I thought, what better way to get to know more people from my dorm than playing some football! Honestly. I didn't know what fantasy football was. I, at this point, knew what football was so I thought it was gonna be like a flag football thing. Well, I quickly found out that that was not the case and that we were going to be drafting players to create a "fantasy team". Believe me. That's not good when the only player names you've heard of are Joe Montana and Steve Young at this point. I still remember that day fairly vividly. We drew cards to set the draft order and I drew the ace! I got the #1 pick. I wanted to pick Steve Young but since I've only heard his name, I didn't know if he still played or not. So, I saw this magazine that someone else had open, and picked the first name I saw. Jeff George. #2 pick quickly went with Steve Young...

So, was my fantasy team a total debacle? Surprisingly no. You see, I drafted this sleeper, very late... I didn't even know his first name. I saw his name in a magazine and it wasn't crossed off yet.

"Um... Ok, I'll go with B. Foster?"

I knew it must be good when couple of guys behind me said "SHIT!"

Well, it was Barry Foster of the Pittsburgh Steelers who didn't have a monster year or anything but him, along with all the rag tag team that I had scored in opportune times and basically kept me in the hunt (I ended up 3rd place overall). So, each week, I started tuning into the Steelers game (I also had Eric Green, TE). Well, that was the year that the Steelers won 12 games and lost to the the Chargers in the AFC Championship. I think I may have had a few more Steelers because I basically remember thinking that if the Steelers did well, my fantasy team did well. And that's the only reason why I was rooting for the Steelers that turned out to be an awesome team. Ever since then, I've been a devoted, loud mouthed (as my friends can sadly vouch) Steelers fan. So, I might not go waaaaaay back, but I love the Steelers as much as any other fan loves their team.

Oh, and did I mention that I've come a long ways in the fantasy world? I'm in two leagues. In the 3rd year since inception of one of the leagues, I won. In the 2nd year since inception of the other league, I won that. And so currently, I am the defending champion in that league. So bring it! Fantasy football, here it comes!